The Linos Ensemble’s highly polished, enthusiastic performances in this programme of Haydn’s chamber music for wind instruments and strings generate a compelling immediacy that is hard to resist. Moreover, the attractively diverse choice of pieces provides plenty of opportunity to demonstrate both the excellent soloistic skills of Linos’s members and its deftly balanced ensemble, while suitably close recording throughout presents this group’s eloquence and fresh vitality in fine, clear detail.
The delightful, open-air qualities of this repertoire are exemplified by the F major Cassation, whose amiable good humour is captured with buoyant, cheerful vigour in the opening Allegro; with stately elegance in the two minuets, affecting melodiousness in the Adagio, and an engaging swing in the final rondo. The extrovert B flat Divertissement offers a charming display of fluent, conversational playing, a style which the Linos exploits to particular effect in the lively alternation of different instrumental groupings in the elegant A major Quartet for flute and strings. Sample the enchanting flute solo in the Adagio and fugal episode in the finale. Ultimately, the infectiously high-spirited, effervescent exchanges between flute and oboe in the witty C major Notturno (originally for lira organizzato) sum up the allure of this entertaining issue.'